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Old 5th Dec 2006, 5:50 pm   #21
sparkie
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Default Re: The history of Hacker

Hacker/Dynatron - fantastic!! I've had a lot of the radio range over the years and they are uniformly well built and the performance for domestic mains or tranny sets is astonishingly good. I have a Dynatron 'Wyndsor' radiogram of about 1956 vintage and the sound quality is superb - 10 watt push-pull amp with EL84's, a Tannoy Variluctance catridge, used by the BBC), and a sealed unit loudspeaker with HF and LF in the box - all from 1956!! Steve
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Old 5th Dec 2006, 6:35 pm   #22
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Hi All,
I might have missed something in the thread, but I remember a booklet "Hacker Radio" by Geoffrey Dixon-Nuttall and Gordon Bussey that gives an outline of the career of the Hacker brothers. It starts with the formation of Dynatron when because they were minors at the time the company had to be in their fathers name. It is published by DGN publications but I am not sure whether it is still available. Is this the one Nick refers to?

It covers the early stages, work during WWII on military electronics and post war radios. Most of the detail is of the pre-war Dynatron range. It also gives an outline of the various financial difficulties leading to mergers, takeovers and rebirth including the formation of Hacker and Hacker Sound. From my memory though the detail on Hacker radios is limited but there is a useful list of models.
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Old 5th Dec 2006, 6:48 pm   #23
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Hi John,

The booklet is the one Nick wrote of, and has been out of print for some time - copies appear on eBay now and again and have sometimes risen to £30 or so. As you say, it's very good in its coverage of the Dynatron years, and contains a brief account of the Hacker firms' history. There is a list of Hacker models but it has many errors and omissions - a more comprehensive and accurate one (if I say so myself... ) for Hacker radios is available in the files of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hackerradiogroup/ .

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Old 6th Dec 2006, 10:12 pm   #24
Superhet Si
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Default Re: The history of Hacker

Its strange to think that, if Hacker had survived the fire that put the last nail into the coffin Hacker would be selling DAB radio's by now!
Oh, on second thoughts......................
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Old 31st Jul 2007, 12:57 pm   #25
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Originally Posted by Paul_RK View Post
...The SP25 was hardly a hi-fi deck, granted, but it was pretty robust, and there weren't many better alternatives to use in a portable - an SME 3009 wouldn't have fared very well I guess ugliness is in the eye of the beholder

Paul
Our first, ahem, 'Hi-Fi' was a Hacker Grenadier fitted with a Garrard SP25 turntable, purchased in about 1971. Its design was contrary to contemporary 'music-centre' construction of two discrete speakers and a placcy-lidded turntable, insofar as it consisted of a sturdily-made 'traditional' mono record-player with a wooden lidded totally-enclosed turntable.

The other speaker was fashioned similarly, but not as deep, and contained a separate amplifier fed with (IIRC) 36V DC running alongside the audio signal in a four-core screened cable, terminated in an offset four-pin plug, and of sufficient length to drape around the front-room of a 1930's semi (we weren't allowed it in the living room!).

Both units had individual volume, treble and bass controls. There was no headphone jack, just a two-pin DIN socket (one flat; one pin) allowing rudimentary headphone listening.

The units were finished off in medium-light teak(?) veneer with black rexine-covered side-cheeks, alloy cylindrical knobs, and black plastic grille embossed into little squares, with chrome (well, chrome-coloured plastic) trim. ISTR many of the components were tubular capacitors.

All the above is from memory. It cost about £100.00, and drew disdainful looks from visitors who evidently considered it 'old-fashioned'. It sounded far, far better than the contemporary Jap stuff though!
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Old 31st Jul 2007, 4:34 pm   #26
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Hi Russell,

Yes, that's a pretty accurate description of the Grenadier, Hacker's first transistorised mains-powered portable player: only the Talisman came after. I'd forgotten (assuming I'd noticed ) that the second amplifier/speaker unit isn't self-powered as with the valve models. I've quite a good Grenadier here, and will take a few photos of it when I reach that part of the (ware)house in the course of spring cleaning

Paul
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Old 31st Jul 2007, 6:34 pm   #27
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Default Re: The history of Hacker

Yes, these were marvellous machines. The first transistorised record player from Hacker, it replaced the earlier Gondolier.

They sounded really good - sturdy cabinet, powerful amplifier, big Celestion speaker. Almost HiFi, I'd say, and certainly a lot closer than most of the "unit audio" systems that were on offer from other manufacturers at about the same time.

Do you still have yours?

Nick.
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Old 1st Aug 2007, 1:09 pm   #28
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Do you still have yours?

Nick.
Sadly, no.

However, I have the second speaker-amplifier somewhere! The original unit went pear-shaped around 1981 and I had neither the time nor inclination to sort it out. I salvaged the amplifier from the second speaker unit for general use.
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Old 3rd Nov 2007, 3:35 pm   #29
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Default Re: The history of Hacker.

Hello, I'm new around here - found your site while looking for information about Hacker. I had no idea that they were originally Dynatron; my Dad used to reckon, many years ago, that Dynatron supplied all the BBC's TV sets as they were of the best available quality. Is this true?

I have been a happy Hacker owner for about five years; I have a Gondolier record player. It's in almost daily use and works for its keep from time to time.

Thanks also for the information about the link between Roberts and Hacker; I had thought that Roberts bought Hacker, but I now see that the story is a little more convoluted than that. It seems odd that Roberts bought the name but have never used it; perhaps this was due to the modern negative meaning of "hacker" as a person who does illegal things to computers!

Last edited by Station X; 3rd Nov 2007 at 6:08 pm. Reason: To comply with forum rules.
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